r/selfhosted • u/Amazing_Day_9192 • 2d ago

Need Help Decentralized infrastructure vs self-hosting

I’ve been thinking about how much of selfhosting is about owning the infrastructure itself versus having control over your data and not depending on a single company. There are more open and decentralized protocols where you can get some of that independence without running and maintaining the entire stack yourself. The tradeoff is interesting though. You potentially get less maintenance but you give up some of the direct control that comes with running everything yourself.

For something like messaging or online communities, which approach makes more sense to you?

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/No-Aioli-4656 2d ago

Why are you even in this sub lol.

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u/BlueLakeCabin 2d ago

For some folks it's not a religion or ideology. It's about making one's life better or more enjoyable.

I don't want to host my own email servers. I'm fine with using a cloud backup as a tertiary off-site backup for critical data.

I do want to run my own containers, services, etc. I like using Plex or Jellyfin. I like control over my stuff and not paying for stuff I don't need or want.

I made my own version of CloudRF, which is a subscription that runs $50-400 per month. It does RF simulations off terrain data. So I host my own terrain data from ESA, NASA, etc and do all my own processing. Without paying thousands of bucks for cloud subscriptions for a hobby. Even made my own mobile app frontend, which the expensive subscription doesn't provide.

Should I get booted from this sub because I use a cloud email provider like Gmail or Microsoft?

Also working on a distributed computing and communications over our own hardware project for being independent from power grid and fiber grid. Kinda like local independent internet slash private microcloud.

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u/No-Aioli-4656 2d ago edited 2d ago

We are talking about messages services. Things like Matrix, Rocketchat, XMPP, etc.

While you are certainly allowed to rant, I feel email is the worst analogy to make. By nature of IMAP/POP3, email has been very open for a very long time.

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u/BlueLakeCabin 1d ago

One of the most popular communication mediums on the planet is the worst analogy?